How to save money on car insurance

No, this isn’t an ad for GEICO, but I came across a recent article in Real Simple about car insurance which reminded me that even after you have selected a low cost provider, you can still save money. Today, I will discuss what I did and what you can, too, to save on car insurance.

In the article, one of the tips mentioned was determining if you are eligible for a low mileage discount. In layman’s terms, if you don’t actually drive your car a lot, for whatever reason, you should let your insurance company know. In our case, we drive the car approximately 40/miles a week, which is a strong argument for NOT OWNING A CAR, but that’s another matter. We are lucky enough to have accessible public transportation options. The point is, in a year, we’ll drive our car only ~ 2500-3000 miles, factoring in the occasional road trip. From an insurance perspective, we don’t drive the car much, therefore, we reduce the risk of accident. Translation: lower risk = lower cost. There might be some other mathematics, too, in that equation.

After being reminded of this fact, I called my insurance company, which happens to be GEICO, and asked them how I could save money since I was shopping around. When I mentioned that we don’t drive our car often, that immediately triggered a significant $92/year savings after running their calculations. Excellent! Just a few minute read of some helpful advice and I was able to save money. That’s the power of information. You should see if your situation is similar.

How can you save money on car insurance?

Forget the GEICO ad, but head over to an insurance quote search engine site, like Compare.com, Esurance, or Progressive and plug in your current policy features and see what kind of rate you can get. There’s a very good chance that you are overpaying. Other helpful, classic advice on this topic is “bundling” your insurance providers. If you have rental, homeowner’s, life, or some other insurance, see if you can add car insurance to that policy as well. You may be eligible for a discount based on “keeping it in the family.”